2005 Indoor World Trial Championship Round 5

Fujinami crashed and damaged the bike, a very tough battle at his home event.

It all happened at the beginning of the qualification lap. The first section consisted of a triple step, and it was a very tough challenge. Fuji attacked the section, but he fell from the top when the engine under-guard caught the highest step. The bike was damaged by hitting the ground from the front end, bending its front forks, handle bar and levers. It was Fuji's first time to bend the front forks in his entire trial career.

Trying hard on the wounded 'Works' bike. Notice the front forks are bent.

Actually it was a hard section for all the Honda riders. Lampkin who started after Fuji also had a problem. He somehow managed to save himself by footing the lift alongside of the section; where the minders stand. Another Honda rider Freixa failed to climb the section to the top either.

It was a very difficult situation for Fuji, because the factory was in a process of developing their bike, and there was no spare 'works' bike at the Montesa camp in Barcelona. Also because of a time allowance: 11 minutes to complete 8 sections, Fuji did not have time to let his mechanics fixing the bike either.

There was another steep step at the section two, and Fuji figured it was too difficult to attack it with the standard bike, so he rode his damaged bike. Fuji rode the bike till the third section, where he managed to mark clean, but he could not continue riding the bike in such conditions, so he switched to the standard bike from the section 4. However, Fuji did not have a chance to perform what he had at the rest of the section anyway.

Fuji at the section on the standard bike.

Although Fuji beat Freixa at the double-lanes, he completed the lap with 21 points: 15 points behind the top finisher Raga. As he describe it was a disastrous defeat, he finished at 6th place: the final qualification lap finisher.

Jordi Tarres's old brother was in charge of section coordination. He designed the sections with series of ups and downs without any twisting features. Also riding lines were literally all straight. Such features are rare in Outdoor competition, and it was a valuable lesson for Montesa camp to realize there were some weak points in their bikes.

So, the lesson learned, and the factory will continue their developing program, knowing now that they has some disadvantages, and the riders too will be concentrating on their preparations to minimize their disadvantages against the opponents.

Next round will be at St. Petersburg in Russia on Feb 12th.

Quote from Fujigas:

It was a disastrous defeat. The crash I suffered at the section 1 hurt me very much. It was Montesa's home round in Barcelona, and it was a shame that none of Montesa rider classified for the final lap. My team boss consoled us by saying we had some disadvantages in Barcelona because Spanish riders had more experiences with indoor riding by competing the Spanish championship. But I don't want to use it as my excuses. I will concentrate to practice in order to overcome such handicaps.

Pix: Pep Segales & Santi Diaz < http://www.worldtrials.info/>

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